


Meet Me By The River

by mercutiglo



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Fluff, Multi, No Smut, Other, inspired by the song, it's cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 00:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14780087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercutiglo/pseuds/mercutiglo
Summary: Rilla and Arum are trying to get Rilla back to the Citadel. It's taking a while. They find someone. (Set after most recent episode of SC.)





	Meet Me By The River

They followed the river, so they wouldn’t end up walking in circles despite Arum’s insistence he knew the right way, which had quickly been proven wrong after Rilla started marking their trail and they ended up in the same spot multiple times. Rilla figured that the river had to come from a source, and it was probably the lake, so if Sir Damien and the others were going to be anywhere, it was going to be somewhere along the lake. And at least then they’d have a starting point, and if they hit any of the lakeside towns, Rilla could ask around if any of the knights from the Citadel had been around. At the least, they could find their way back to the citadel from the lake towns, so it was at least a start, even if it would take a bit longer.   
  
They had been walking for almost a two weeks. They could have gone faster if Rilla was to simply ride on Arum’s back, but the days of walking gave them time to talk and grow closer. There were a few times where the pain in Rilla’s ankle became too much and Arum would carry her a bit in his arms, but mostly they would just find a spot to make camp and make a fire. It was never too hard to find something edible, with Rilla’s knowledge of plants and Arum’s ability to fish as well as knowledge of the more local flora. It rained many of the days, making progress slow, but when they decided to stop for the nights - since not even Lord Arum could be sure he would be able to protect them from every monster they met in the nighttime - the rain ended up picking up, making the two of them squish closer together so as to try and prevent the fire from going out by keeping the wind away from it, but also to try and preserve as much heat as they could possibly get from the fire. While at first nights like these irritated Rilla, she eventually opened up and grew closer with the great lizard lord.   
  
It was yet another night like this, and although they had been following the river for so long, and hadn't strayed from their path, it was somewhat disheartening to know that they had still yet to find even the lake. The density of the forest along this stretch of river was more than they had encountered anywhere else, so they were forced to stay closer to the water's edge. Fortunately, they were able to find a large branch that had washed up along the river shores at some point or another, and were able to use that to help protect them from the elements as well. Rilla pointed out a nearby bush that looked to be - and was - elderberries, and told Arum to gather a bunch, but made sure to clarify that she would need to cook them before they could be eaten, due to their toxicity as a raw berry. He rolled his eyes and went to gather them while she started to try and build a fire, but in reality was willing to do most anything to help her. Her ankle had gotten worse overnight, for no particular reason, and she had been in more pain throughout the day than he had seen her in the entire time they had been together. Despite whatever distractions may have seemed reasonable, may have normally distracted her, to be followed with a slight chastising with no actual malice behind it, he couldn't do anything to fix it or detract from the pain. While he wasn't sure that they would necessarily be able to help her, he secretly hoped that they may be able to do at least something to help fix her ankle, be it reduce swelling or pain, as long as it reduced one of them.    
  
The fire was taking a while to start, due to the overall dampness of the area, and the berries would need to be reduced, which would take much longer than either of them would have liked. Arum had looked in the river to see if there were any fish worth catching, and there were none that seemed to be passing by, which was odd. There had been fish throughout the river their entire journey - granted, not necessarily a continuous group of them, but enough that they could usually catch at least one fish per night - and yet none were even seen swimming through in the deep center of the river. That was their other clue that they had to be getting close to the lake: the river had widened significantly since they first began their journey, and with the width had come depth as well. Rilla was simply glad they found a stone that appeared to have a curve to it that she could use as a bowl when she heated the berries. There were a number of rocks, large and small, that littered the edges of the river here, which both seemed extremely natural but also as though something had to have happened here to bring such large trees and rocks this far up off the bank of the river.   
  
Tonight, the clouds gave way. The rain had let up significantly, practically a mist when they had stopped, and by the time the fire was going and the berries were over the fire, Arum had Rilla wrapped in close to his side while they looked up at the stars that had finally decided to emerge. They twinkled like silver, matching the moon brilliantly, and lighting their surroundings just enough to see that they were there a little more than usual, but not enough to see what lurked in the woods just behind the treeline.    
  
Rilla was trying to do some calculations, figure out where they were based on where the stars where in relation to the moon and everything, but she was still struggling through the pain from her ankle, her constant distraction. When she finally yelled in frustration and threw the leaves she was writing on into the fire, Arum loosened his embrace of her a bit, not wanting to anger her, but still wanting to keep her from standing up and trying to storm off. "Aaaaaggggghhhhh!!! This is useless"   
  
"My Amaryllis, it's not useless, it's simply...."   
  
"Arum I swear to Saints if you say it's simply 'wrong' I will grab that rock back and start doing my calculations on a bit of a harder surface, if you catch my meaning, A surface with more scales. He kept his mouth shut, and she loosened her muscles slightly. "That's what I thought." She grabbed another leaf and tried again, Arum leaving a little bit of distance between them. After ten more minutes of struggling to find out where they were and occasionally poking at the berries with a stick, she set her things down and scooted herself closer back into Arum's side, startling him a bit from where he had been staring blindly into the depths of the fire. "Lord Arum, I'm sorry. It was rude, but I was -  am, in a lot of pain. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm in pain, and I have no idea where I'm going and all I want is to go home!" She turned her face into his side, and he tried to comfort her as best he could. While he was getting better at it, there were still a lot of things he didn't entirely understand about the ways in which humans experienced certain emotions. He found Rilla in particular to be an interesting person to observe emotions from, considering how frequently she tried to keep her emotions to herself.    
  
"A.... Amaryllis," he ventured after a few minutes of her softly crying into his side. "Why don't you do something that'll cheer you up? Are there any games you'd like to play?"   
  
She didn't remove her head from his side, but she had stopped her crying. "No, they would all require a non-broken ankle and too much explanation."   
  
"Well, perhaps another time then with the games." He hoped there would be ample opportunity for there to truly be "another time" but now wasn't the time to talk about the future of their relationship. "Would..... Does singing calm you down? The song from the Keep?"   
  
She pulled her head away from his side to look up at him. "Only if you're the one that sings it, Arum. I know you know it, I wanna hear you sing it."   
  
He made some sort of face that was a cross between confusion and disgust, which made Rilla laugh at least, which greatly reduced both the tension and the stakes between the two of them. "I mean, you probably don't  _ want _ to...."   
  
A smile broke out across her face as she poked him in the side, aiming for the specific spots where he was ticklish, after having mistakenly shared that information with her. "C'mon, Arum. I know you can do it, I just wanna hear your voice. I'll stop you if it's horrible."   
  
He looked down towards her, and then looked out across the fire, towards the woods, and started to sing.    
  
_ "Meet me by the river, where the elderberries grow _ __  
_ When stars are silver, no one has to know _ __  
_ Meet me by the river, by driftwood and stone, _ __  
_ I'll float down with her, no one has to know" _ __  
  
Rilla joined in at this point, not because she thought he was doing terribly, but simply because she's a person who has to sing along when she know's the words.    
  
_ "And if the old man caught me stealing _ __  
_ Wouldn't bother to lie _ __  
_ Mama let her baby grow through the ceiling, _ __  
_ But do we wonder why _ __  
_ She seemed so bitter, _ __  
_ Bitten by the cold" _ __  
  
A dim cry rang out, interrupting their duet. "Rilla?!"    
  
She knew that voice, she would know that voice anywhere. "Damien?" she yelled back.   
  
The sounds of a knight bumbling through the woods, tripping over all manner of rocks and roots began to make its way towards them, getting louder and louder. Rilla felt Arum tense up beside her, but couldn't make out the expression on his face. If she had to guess, she would have guessed that he looked sick. "Arum, are you -"    
  
Damien burst through the trees and paused for only a moment upon seeing Arum, focusing his attention on Rilla. "Oh, thank the Saint's, Rilla my sweet! I heard you singing and prayed that it was truly you!" He ran to her, but when he went to give her a hug, he accidentally hit her injured ankle and she cried out, causing both of the others to look at her with concern. "Rilla my dear what's wrong? Are you hurt? Did this...." He thought about what word he should choose, considering both his own feelings and how close he noticed the two of them were. His concern quickly turned into confusion, then worry, then envy. His stream of consciousness speaking kicked in, despite knowing that he was just going to end up getting himself into deeper trouble. "Rilla I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, but I hope he hasn't hurt you in any way, although it doesn't appear as though the two of you are necessarily.... Is this because of me? Was there something I said about him that made you set out and find him? Was your  _ perceived _ kidnapping just a ruse so that the two of you could run off? Were you jealous? Was I being pompous? I wasn't sure of my feelings yet Rilla my dear, that's why I hadn't told you anything yet, I know I should have talked to you before trying to pursue anything but I mean look at him, he's just  _ so _ handsome and obviously you also appreciate that but Rilla you are still my light and my love I would never have risked what we have between us for that I hope you know that I wouldn't just leave you without telling you anything but also is that why you...."    
  
Rilla and Arum both became even more confused by all of the things that Damien was going on and on and on about. They looked at each other, both extremely confused by everything, but Arum had a little bit of shame in his face as well. When Rilla knitted her eyebrows together, about to ask what it was that was wrong, he quietly said "I never realized that the Rilla your Honeysuckle was always yelling about was actually you. And that your Damien was this one, Sir Honeysuckle. And I never realized just how close the two of you were." He made moves as if to get up, and Rilla put her hand on his side.   
  
"Where are you going?" Damien ended up trailing off at this, not fully drawing his sword, but putting his hand on its hilt.   
  
"Are you ready for that final duel of ours, Lord Arum?"   
  
With all of the attention suddenly on him, he reddened. "Well, I.... I never put together that the two of you were always going on about each other. And I figure that from here on, you can make sure she returns to the Citadel. I don't need to accompany her any longer. I can go back to my keep, and stay out of your hair, so to speak." This time it was Rilla and Damien that shared a look.    
  
"Arum. Stay here for just a moment. I need to speak with Damien privately for just a minute. Do  __ not slip away, do you hear me?" Rilla tried her best to look threatening while Damien stood on the other side of her, making a very confused face at the lizard and what his fiance was saying. She started to get up, and then realized that perhaps moving was not the best course of action. "On second thought, would you give us a moment? Go sit by the river or something? On that one big boulder, you see it? That way I can watch and make sure you don't try and leave." He nodded, silently standing and going over to the rock that Rilla had pointed at. He sat facing the water, staring down at the river, flowing quickly by over the shallow pebbles.   
  
"Rilla, what is this about?" Damien asked, kneeling by her feet.   
  
Rilla looked away from the sulking lizard, and back towards her confused human. "Damien, it's obvious we both have feelings for Lord Arum. We would both suffer if he simply went back to the keep, never to been seen again, and he would be so sad and lonely too. I've spent so much time with him since he brought me to try and find a cure for his keep, and he's just so lonely. He wants someone to talk to. I know, the knight's code forbids you from things like this, blah blah blah, but you've already broken the code multiple times for him. We can all three live in my home outside the Citadel's walls, so it would never be an issue of having to bring him into the city. He can be a bit.... Brash, at times, I know. And dramatic. Moody. But so can you, and obviously I still put up with and love you."    
  
Damien looked down for a minute, before looking back up to Rilla's face. "Would you really want that too?"   
  
She laughed. "Of course! That's why I just suggested it!"   
  
He reached up and kissed her cheek, embracing her while being more careful of her ankle this time. "Oh thank the Saints. Rilla that's such a marvelous idea. I'm so elated."   
  
The laughing couple looked over towards Arum, who was trying desperately not to listen in on the conversations so as not to get his hopes up, but already knowing the verdict, hiding his smile. "Arum!" Rilla cried, gesturing for him to come back over to them. When he came over, she grabbed one of his hands. "Arum. Don't go back to the keep. Come stay with us. You never have to go inside the Citadel's walls if you don't want to, and you can come back to visit the keep whenever you need to." Arum looked down at where her hand was clenching his. "I mean, you obviously don't have to if you don't want to. But we want you to."    
  
He looked between the two of them, and smiled. "Of course."

**Author's Note:**

> Yo yo yo thanks for reading! Please kudos and comment if you enjoyed it, I thrive off of validation. Also obvi the song lyrics are not mine, I don't know who exactly wrote it but the props for that go to the penumbra crew. I just.... Love this podcast so much ya'll. You don't even know. Also thank you to the discord friends who always say things that inspire me to write other things. I love you all.


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